I watched the films in the wrong order, though it hardly seemed to matter as the second film, "Jungle Woman" isn't exactly a sequel as so much of the story has been changed. Instead of being the product of a truly evil scientist (John Carradine), the ape is transformed into a hot woman by a nice scientist and there's also no mention of the story in "Captive Wild Woman". Odd...but this sort of thing was not unusual in Universal's horror films of the 1940s...they often contradicted each other.A lady has a sister with some odd glandular disorder...so she takes him to Dr. Walters (Carradine). Little do they know that the nice scientist is actually completely evil and plans on experimenting on the sick sister. He plans on using her body to help turn an ape he stole become human-looking...all thanks to the miracle of glands. Along the way, his stupid assistant* gets in the way, so he sacrifices her...all in the name of scientist.The new creation Walter dubs 'Paula Dupree' and she soon becomes the assistant to Fred the lion and tiger tamer. This is because Paula can hypnotize animals to do her bidding just by staring at them...and staring is what Acquanetta was REALLY good at doing throughout this film. Apart from a little tantrum and sequence where she looks a bit like a cheap wolfman, she really isn't given much to do other than stare. And, this staring she-freak is in love with Fred...but without a conscience, there's no telling WHAT she'll do! This is not a terrible film but is about what you'd expect from a second-tier Universal horror movie. It entertains (particularly because of Carradine's cool performance as the goofy doc!) and is pretty much what fans of the genre will enjoy. It's also just a bit better than its sequel.By the way, the exotic looking Acquanetta was actually originally Mildred Davenport...from Wyoming! So, despite the press releases from Universal, she was NOT the Venezuelan Volcano!

Lesser Universal horror film that has a few things going for it despite its faults. John Carradine plays a mad scientist working on glandular research who comes up with the brilliant idea of transforming a female gorilla into a human. The result is Paula Dupree (Acquanetta), who gets a job with lion tamer Fred Mason (Milburn Stone) because the animals seem afraid of her. Paula develops feelings for Fred and when she sees him embrace his girlfriend Beth (Evelyn Ankers), she "hulks out" and returns to ape form.Exotic-looking Acquanetta found herself cast in several roles like this. Not surprisingly, her career was very brief. She looks cute but doesn't say a line in the entire movie and is ultimately forgettable. Evelyn Ankers appears in one of her many girlfriend roles she did at the time. At least here she gets to be heroic and save her sister from becoming another ape woman. That's famous animal trainer Clyde Beatty in all of the lion taming stock footage. Amusingly, Milburn Stone was given this role because he resembled Beatty enough from behind to fit the stock footage. He's fine though he never was leading man material. That brings us to the real star of the movie, the great John Carradine. He's the best part as the nefarious Dr. Sigmund Walters, one of those wicked old horror movie scientists who dismisses pesky notions of morality and silly things like law to perform experiments on people in the pursuit of the great god Science. Carradine was no Karloff, Zucco, or Atwill but he could play roles like this in his sleep and quite well.As I said, this is one of the lesser Universal horrors and perhaps the first clunker of their second horror cycle. The plot could have been made to work with more focus on the villainous Carradine and maybe more screen time for the ape woman. But unfortunately someone had a jones on for Clyde Beatty and all that circus stuff so that goes on forever. Still, it's a short B mad scientist movie with someone in a gorilla suit and lots of stock footage of lions and tigers. I seriously doubt it will kill you to spend an hour on it.

John Carradine plays insane Dr. Walters, who is obsessed with his human gland experiments, where he turns a female ape named Cheela into a beautiful woman he names Paula Dupree(played by Acquanetta)! She was in the circus run by Fred Mason(played by Milburn Stone) whom she is in love with, but is driven to murderous rage when she discovers that he is already involved with Beth Colman(played by Evelyn Ankers). How will this unlikely soap opera turn out? Utterly preposterous film with absurd science and hokey plot. Sad to see perennial Universal Studios "scream queen" Evelyn Ankers wasted here. Amazingly, the first of a trilogy!(though the last two are not on DVD).

This is probably the only movie on record with more whip-cracks than dialog, so you may need earplugs. Actually I kept waiting for the Wild Woman to, you know, like get wild— like tear up the scenery or at least a bunch of hot-blooded men. But no. All this wild woman does is stand stock-still and plant a big-eyed stare on the big cats who really are wild. And for some strange reason only mad scientist (is there any other kind) Carradine knows, this scares the heck out of the big cats. She's definitely not a woman to monkey with. But then, Carradine goes and monkeys around with gorilla glands so that the Wild Woman turns into a perfect mate for the Wolf Man. Which, of course, allows the studio to re-use all that left-over Lon Chaney makeup.Forget this plot, which is too goofy and poorly blended in, anyway. The real attraction are the big cats and trainer Clyde Beatty (look-alike Stone in close-ups). Those lion vs. tiger tussles are real grabbers and about the only reason to tune in. Can't help noting another weirdness. Namely, that blacklisted director Ed Dmytryk helmed this decidedly a-political effort. Talk about a fish out of water. Also, look for a real wild woman in person of Martha Vickers (Dorothy, the sister) who later heats up the screen in Bogart's The Big Sleep (1946). Too bad she didn't get her chance here. Anyway, a more accurate title would be A Day at the Circus, but then, Hollywood never did believe in Truth in Advertising.